Three days later, Finn’s nerves were frayed. He couldn’t escape the fear that Drakon or his Crypteia comrades could catch up with them at any point, and since they and Adakios had parted that morning, both boys had been feeling extremely vulnerable. The anxiety intensified as the road grew busier, for as they neared Olympia they encountered more and more people travelling in both directions.
“Drakon won’t have any problem killing us in public, you know,” said Finn. “He’s a Spartan and we’re helots as far as he knows.”
Arthur stopped in his tracks and grabbed his brother by the shoulders.
“Stop worrying about Drakon,” he snapped. “Even if he is following us, he’ll want to see where we end up – to find out where Adakios and Nikodemos come from.” He lowered his voice as a few people stopped in the road and stared at the boys. “We have to focus on the Olympic Games now. If we don’t leave here with Argos, the whole mission will be a failure. Then what?”
Finn’s brow creased. They had never failed to give a ghost from the museum what he or she needed to rest in peace. And it was only when the ghost was laid to rest that the boys were brought back to the present in the Professor’s study. They had always wondered what would happen if they failed. Would they be stuck in the past forever? They had seen many times and places on their adventures, and some of them would have been quite exciting places to get stuck and live their lives. But the idea of being stuck as Spartan slaves was horrific, and Finn shuddered. He fingered the carved stone charm that Adakios had given him to help prove to Argos that the boys carried word from his father.
“You’re right,” Finn said. “Let’s talk it through.”
The boys went back over what Adakios had told them. They knew that Argos would be at the Games to serve his master, Theras, who was due to compete in the pankration.
“Do we even know what that is?” Arthur asked.
“The pankration is the toughest event at the Games,” said Finn, recalling a long conversation with the Professor on the subject. “It’s like a cross between wrestling and kickboxing. Basically it just means fighting without weapons. You can do pretty much whatever you want to your opponent.”
Arthur snorted. “Sounds just right for these Spartans!”
Finn agreed. Everything they had seen of the Spartans so far confirmed the legends. They were totally fixated on fighting and war. They were ruthless and cold and cruel. You could admire their commitment but there seemed to be little or nothing to love about them, and brutal hand-to-hand fighting seemed like the event Spartan boys would dream about!
The brothers decided that when they arrived at Olympia the first thing they would do was ask around for information about Theras and the pankration. Hopefully they would be able to find Argos quickly and could be on their way. From time to time on the road they would see a red Spartan cloak, and each time they did they would think of the fighting at Thermopylae, and of the grave danger they were in, helping helots to escape the most feared warriors in history.
Such was the tension that neither boy had really thought about the fact that they were heading for the birthplace of the Olympic Games, and it was only as a bend in the road brought the buildings of Olympia into view that they began to feel more excited than afraid. They could see several buildings that looked like temples with their round columns. In fact almost every building seemed to be a temple. This was obviously a place just for the Games, not for normal life. There was nothing that looked anything like a stadium, but in the distance there seemed to be a large crowd of people standing on a wide grassy bank. As if on cue, the crowd started cheering at something the boys could not see.
“I guess that’s the stadium then,” Arthur remarked. Finn nodded.
Ahead of them, the road approaching the temples was lined with market stalls. The shouts of the vendors and the sweet smells of the food they sold mixed to create a sense of normal human warmth and the boys soaked it up gratefully after the hardships and hostility they had faced.
“Shame we don’t have any money!” said Arthur, chewing on a piece of the dried meat they had acquired earlier in the journey. They had collected figs and olives as they walked, and had swapped them for other food whenever they found the opportunity.
“Well maybe someone wants some figs,” said Finn hopefully. “And anyway, it gives us a reason to talk to people and find out when the pankration is going to take place. Let’s split up and meet over there where the stalls stop. We’ll take one side of the road each.”
They divided the figs between them and made their way slowly from stall to stall, offering figs as payment for anything that took their fancy and asking as many questions about the Games as they could get away with. By the time they met up again just outside the temple complex they knew a lot more, even if they had not managed to find many people willing to accept figs in exchange for other goods.
Finn broke out some sweet bread he had acquired and the boys shared what they had learned. The competitors in the pankration would make their sacrifices to the gods later that day. They would sleep in a building called the Leonidaion, near the temples, without any family members or servants, before taking part in the main event the following day.
“So if we can find Argos and persuade him to leave tonight,” Finn mused, “there’s a good chance that his master won’t even know about it for twenty-four hours...”
“Lucky we got here today!” said Arthur. “We just need to find out exactly when and where the pankration competitors will make their sacrifices and then we should be able to figure out which one is Theras. Then we follow him to...” The words died on Arthur’s lips and he gulped as a red-cloaked Spartan strode towards them. Both boys were on their feet immediately and were about to run when the Spartan called out to someone behind them, waved, and marched past without turning his head. It was a timely reminder of the dangers that awaited them, and the boys finished their conversation in whispers.
They agreed to split up again. As Finn made his way back to the market stalls in search of more details about the pankration and the sacrifices, Arthur took a more direct approach. He headed into the temple complex and, seeing a gang of boys hanging around near a large, plain-looking building, he wandered over to them.
“Can you tell me where the Leonidaion is?” he asked. The boys stared at him and laughed.
“It’s right there,” said the tallest of them eventually, pointing at the wall behind him.
“Alexios!” joked another. “Do you think he’s here to enter the pankration?” The others doubled over at this, pointing at Arthur and howling with laughter. Never one to disguise his anger, Arthur reddened. The boy who was mocking him was bigger than Arthur, but not by much, and Arthur, unable to restrain himself, began to square up for a fight.
“Relax, my friend, relax,” said the taller boy, Alexios. “We mean no harm. Nobody in their right mind would enter the pankration! It’s vicious and it’s mostly Spartans who go in for it, and we’re not Spartans...” Alexios faltered. “You’re not a Spartan are you?” he asked. Arthur shook his head.
“Thanks to Zeus!” Alexios replied. “Anyway, what do you want with the Leonidaion? They won’t let you in, you know.”
Arthur explained, with some bending of the truth, that he was looking for a friend who served a Spartan wrestler.
“Theras?” Alexios repeated the name as soon as he heard it. “I’ve seen him, yes. He went off to watch the chariot racing at the hippodrome earlier. And he’s easy enough to recognise. He’s young but he has completely white hair. Why don’t you go and have a look? Maybe your friend Argos is there now.”
Arthur shook his head. “I need to find my brother first, but thanks.” Alexios shrugged, and Arthur headed back to the market. A few minutes later he found Finn chatting to a date seller. Finn extracted himself from the conversation and Arthur filled him in. They soon agreed to head straight for the chariot races and try to locate Theras. Jogging back towards the temple complex, the boys were facing the direction of the crowd up on the bank they had noticed earlier. Arthur saw Alexios and his friends, still hanging around outside the Leonidaion, and was about to wave when he saw something that chilled his heart. He grabbed Finn’s arm.
The gang was talking to a red-cloaked Spartan. He appeared to drop a few coins into Alexios’s hand. Immediately the boy pointed towards the market. The Spartan turned to reveal a bandaged arm. There could be no mistake. It was Drakon!
Arthur dragged Finn across the dusty open ground towards a temple and ducked around one of its corners.
Both boys were on the edge of panic. They had assumed Drakon would pursue Adakios to his village and the sight of him so close by had been a nasty shock.
“His dogs must have been following our scent, not Adakios’s,” said Finn. “And now he’s paid those kids, they’ll be spying for him.” A long silence followed.
“We still have to find Argos,” said Arthur eventually. “If we don’t, Adakios will never be at peace.”
“Yes, but if those boys have told Drakon who we’re looking for,” said Finn between short, panicky breaths, “we’re finished. He’ll know exactly where to find us.”
“Relax, my friend, we haven’t told him who you’re looking for.” Finn and Arthur spun around, unsure whether to fight or run. Alexios had come around the other side of the temple and approached them from behind.
“I don’t like Spartans,” he went on. “And he definitely doesn’t like you two. I told him to go and look in the market, that was all.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” Arthur hissed.
“Well if I wanted him to find you, I’d have told him where to look! You think I didn’t see you coming back? Anyway,” he said, shrugging, “if you can’t trust me you’re finished, like you said. But if you do trust me I can help. I’ve sent the boys out to look for your friend, Argos. They’re smart boys and it won’t take them long, and as soon as they find him they’re going to bring him to one end of the hippodrome. Follow me there and you’ll see your friend soon enough.”
Arthur and Finn both knew that Alexios was right. They had no choice but to trust him, and they agreed to follow him to the appointed meeting place, which appeared to be where the crowd they had seen was gathered. It was a nervous walk, both boys glancing around furtively no matter how hard they tried to appear casual. They felt a little better as they gained the cover of a jostling crowd and made their way along one edge of the hippodrome. They could see nothing beyond the next few bodies as they followed their guide through the crowd, making slow progress until the ground sloped down and the crowd began to thin out. A roar went up and the boys were treated to brief glimpses of chariots, each pulled by four horses, flashing by with their charioteers standing on platforms mere centimetres above the ground. It looked like a desperately dangerous circus act, but the boys were too tense to enjoy it. They stood, and waited, and sweated, Finn clutching at the carved stone charm Adakios had entrusted to them.